


The Reasons Not To Cheat At Poker

by AristocatSlippers



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 02:16:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12546584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AristocatSlippers/pseuds/AristocatSlippers
Summary: Natsume cheats at poker, Kitamoto believes this deserves revenge.





	The Reasons Not To Cheat At Poker

When Natsume won at poker, Kitamoto swore that he would feel his wrath. It wasn’t that he was a sore loser - he wasn’t that petty! Simply put, his wrath was justified every time he thought of all the snacks he just lost and how much they cost. All he needed was a plan to exact his revenge, fuelled by the imagery of Natsume’s smug face as he smugly ate the entirety of his allowance, Kitamoto thought hard. (A difficult feat by any means when one was desperately hungry because their supposed best friend had left them to starve).   
If Touko Fujiwara hadn’t come to kick them all out of Natsume’s room at sunset, Kitamoto could have won them back easily; he could have been the one smugly reaping the rewards of being a deft hand at poker. (Secretly the cheating boy had been helped by Hinoe to win, but that was beyond Kitamoto’s rather limited knowledge). Instead he’d been forced to go home and relinquish everything to Natsume - as had Tanuma and Nishimura but they weren’t complaining, namely because they were actually good sports but Kitamoto refused to acknowledge it. 

At the thought of Nishimura, Kitamoto had a plan. With this seed of evil genius he could get his revenge and look completely uninvolved… He just needed to convince Taki to play along with his plan and everything would fall into place. Admittedly that might be harder than he first thought. Falling asleep on the idea, Kitamoto would have to wait until morning to devise the next step in his (completely not flawed, at all) flawless plan (which at the moment had a lot of holes but if his minded tried to point them out his inner villain would merely reply with a hissing “shush”). 

The next morning, Kitamoto made sure to confront Taki before any witnesses could show up and ruin his plan for revenge. Taki had gasped quietly in surprise when he banged his hand on her desk to get her attention that morning, leaning close to her and putting forth a proposal.   
“Taki, I need your help.”   
She’d sighed, already resigned but answering anyway “With what exactly?”   
“Natsume” The panic in her eyes was somewhat strange and Kitamoto found himself acting quickly to calm her as she frantically demanded what was wrong. Hands raised in defense he answered “Nothing’s wrong, but he totally cheated at poker, so he’s gotten my entire allowance worth of snacks and I’d like your help in my payback.”   
She relaxed and then raised an eyebrow quizzically, “And how do you plan on doing that?”   
“Well, I would like you to confess your undying love to him, loudly, in front of Nishimura.”   
“Not happening,” she replied dryly “how’re you going to convince me at least?”   
Taking the opportunity to pensively place a finger on his chin and think like the villain he thought he was, Kitamoto put on the air that he didn’t know her weakness at all.   
“I’ll help you kidnap his cat so that you can cuddle the thing for a day if you like.”   
He watched rather smugly as her mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out as she admitted defeat. 

That night, Touko was sure she had seen two figures dressed in black sneak in through a window, but since Shigeru and Takashi had both stayed undisturbed, she had begun to believe it was a dream. Nyanko-sensei, however, knew it was no dream. This was largely because during his sleep, he’d been kidnapped and brought to a familiar mansion to suffer in Taki’s arms. The cat cursed Natsume to the heavens for not waking and protecting him. 

He wasn’t the only one cursing Natsume. 

Startled was probably the best way to describe Natsume at school that day. Laughing maniacally was probably the best way to describe Kitamoto. He watched on, trying to hold in his laughter as Taki approached Natsume, a box of chocolates in hand for extra measure. He was confused, that was for sure.   
Even though Kitamoto had kept his end of the bargain, she still struggled unsurely with how to keep hers. Confessing her not so undying love was difficult, but she blew out a deep breath and went for it, loudly “Natsume, I know you don’t feel the same way, but I had to give them to you! I… I don’t know any other way I can say it, ” she glanced down and moved her foot in a fidgety circle - for authenticity - before glancing back up “but I really like you!”. Untrue or not she couldn’t help but blush, smiling when she looked at the red stain now on his cheeks and his inability to compute. Chocolates held in has hand whilst he stood dumbfounded, she watched as he gathered himself and began to reply, putting his hand on her shoulder reassuringly “Taki…” was the only word that escaped his lips before his eyes slowly slid to the side. Focusing on Nishimura’s rather annoyed glare. 

Instead of rejecting Taki, Natsume made the wise decision to run at full speed down the corridor and escape. The only problem was that Nishimura was chasing him with a raised fist and the boy was quickly catching up. Kitamoto was laughing whilst he watched Natsume’s terrified scrambling, climbing a tree to escape, through the window of the classroom.   
It was then that Natsume’s phone buzzed, a message from Taki:   
Enjoy Kitamoto’s revenge :) I wasn’t going to help but he was too persuasive! 

Looking back on it, maybe Natsume shouldn’t have gotten Hinoe to help him win at poker. Ahhh, the regret.


End file.
